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Evidence is starting to build that fishing affects the way the ocean takes up carbon from the atmosphere, affecting climate change. The ocean is part of the global ‘carbon cycle’, which shifts carbon between reservoirs including plants, soil, water bodies, and the atmosphere. The ocean is largely a ‘sink’ of carbon, drawing it out of the atmosphere and reducing levels of carbon dioxide, which affect global warming.

However, there are many ways the ocean’s carbon sinking powers can be disrupted, and the possibility that fishing is causing significant impacts has recently been in the research spotlight.

Dr Emma Cavan, from the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial, and Dr Simeon Hill, from the British Antarctic Survey, have just published a new paper in Global Change Biolo...

The northern European country, an island in the North Atlantic, is one of few places to allow whale hunting. But demand for the mammals’ meat has decreased dramatically since Japan – Iceland’s main market – resumed commercial whaling in 2019. Iceland’s fisheries minister says whaling is no longer profitable. 

“Why should Iceland take the risk of keeping up whaling, which has not brought any economic gain, in order to sell a product for which there is hardly any demand?” Svandis Svavarsdottir wrote on Friday in the Morgunbladid newspaper. 

Iceland’s most recent annual quotas allow for the hunting of 209 fin whales, which are considered endangered, and 217 minke whales – one of the smallest species.

But Ms Svavarsdottir, a member of the Left-Green Movement, said the fact that only...

In 2015 and 2016, record ocean temperatures triggered coral bleaching events around the world — from Hawai‘i to the Caribbean to Australia — turning once-healthy polyps into ghostly skeletons. But some reefs managed to remain intact due to the cooling effects of upwelling and ocean currents. According to a new study, these special coral reefs, called “refugia,” could disappear in the very near future as human-induced climate change continues to heat up the world.

Presently, about 84% of the world’s shallow coral reefs are places of thermal refugia, defined in the paper as places that have 10 years to recover from heat stress. But when the world heats up to 1.5° Celsius (2...

Jordan is a country known for its ancient rock-cut city of Petra, and for the salt lake called Dead Sea that lies to its west. But over the past decade, it also became a forerunner in coral reef preservation through an ingenious idea. Coral reefs are scattered along the Gulf of Aqaba, a popular area for tourists – specifically scuba divers – who love to explore the area’s reefs and marine life. The region is home to 127 species of Aqaba’s delicate corals, some of which are 6,000 years old, according to an April 2018 report in the National Geographic.

But with growing urban development along the coast of the city, some changes had to be made. The nation wanted to meet tourist demand, but not at the cost of destroying the area’s marine life...

Coral reefs are one of the world’s most biologically diverse and productive ecosystems. They provide abundant ecological goods and services and are central to the socio-economic and cultural welfare of coastal and island communities – throughout tropical and subtropical ocean countries – by contributing billions of dollars to the local and global economies, when combined with tourism and recreation.

Coral reefs also play a vital role in the protection of shorelines, fisheries, biodiversity and unique ecosystems. Building magnificent reefs, tiny coral polyps have developed an incredible ability to calcify and are the most prolific mineralizers on the planet.

They form immense structures like the Great Barrier Reef, which is a world heritage site...

The Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association has been protecting the Red Sea’s coral reefs from destructive anchors by installing the largest mooring system in the world.

When you sail a yacht and need to stop somewhere, you drop an anchor, right? Everyone knows that. But what everybody might not be aware of is the damage these anchors can do to the environment. The popularity of the Red Sea’s rich coral reefs can also lead to their destruction, with every drop of the anchor immediately killing whatever coral happened to be underneath it. There had to be another way – and the Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association (HEPCA) found it with the creation of the world’s largest mooring system.

Mooring is another way of basically parking your sh...

A new University of Wisconsin-Madison study has implications for predicting coral reef survival and developing mitigation strategies against having their bony skeletons weakened by ocean acidification. Though coral reefs make up less than one percent of the ocean floor, these ecosystems are among the most biodiverse on the planet – with over a million species estimated to be associated with reefs. The coral species that make up these reefs are known to be differently sensitive or resilient to ocean acidification – the result of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. But scientists are not sure why.

In the study, researchers show that the crystallization rate of coral skeletons differs across species and is correlated with their resilience to acidification.

“Many agencies keep...

The great diversity of scientific techniques and methods used in the study of marine microplastics pollution limits the current knowledge of this serious environmental problem threatening our ecosystems. This is the main conclusion of a study carried out by the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) that reviews the research carried out to measure the presence of microplastics in the coastal areas and seawater of the Mediterranean Sea, both in the sea surface water, seawater column and in marine sediments.

The conclusions show that the levels of microplastics in the Mediterranean are probably higher than estimated, but the methods used are not capable of recording them. 

Microplastic pollution is one of the environmen...

COP26 President Alok Sharma has warned that progress made during the summit is at risk of “withering on the vine”. Mr Sharma said that the agreements reached at the Glasgow climate meeting had been a “fragile win” for the world. But unless the commitments made are turned into action this year, the chances of keeping global temperatures in check will be lost. 

Quoting from the popular film, Don’t Look Up, he said this was no time to “sit tight and assess”.

• What was agreed at COP26?
• Evasive words and coal compromise, but deal shows progress
• Green label plan for gas and nuclear prompts EU row

The UN’s COP26 climate summit in November ended with a deal being struck in a bid to stave off severe climate change...

The monster iceberg A68 was dumping more than 1.5 billion tonnes of fresh water into the ocean every single day at the height of its melting. To put that in context, it’s about 150 times the amount of water used daily by all UK citizens. A68 was, for a short period, the world’s biggest iceberg.

It covered an area of nearly 6,000 sq km (2,300 sq miles) when it broke free from Antarctica in 2017. But by early 2021, it had vanished.

One trillion tonnes of ice, gone.

• How a colossal block of ice became an obsession
• Iceberg that became a social media star melts away
• Polar seafloor exposed after 50 years of ice cover
• The museum at the end of the world reopens at last

Researchers are currently busy trying to gauge the impact A68 had on the environment.

And a team led from Leeds Un...